I often record long voice-overs where the talent or director stop to sort something out. If I’ve already started a recording (which takes the track name + #), then I must stop and wait. This writes a file that is useless (“take_05” for instance). Now I must tell everyone to ignore take 5. Not everyone gets the message however if there’s several people involved.
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to “pause” until everybody is ready to go, then resume writing “take_05”? When my session includes over a hundred takes (one for each line of dialog, for instance), then the busted takes piles up.
I’ve worked on other DAW software that will pause, so, not being a programmer myself, this seems like it would be feasible to do.
You can change the settings in the Preferences > Transport. There is Return to Start Position on Stop. If this is un-check, the Stop button works, like Pause. So you can stop the recordign, cursor stays on the same place, and you can continue.
Thanks Martin, but it doesn’t quite work like I’m requesting. When you hit “stop” it stops the recording. Hitting “stop” again just plays empty space without restarting the recording. BTW, I have the box un-checked.
Probably not what you want to hear, but have you considered finding a workaround? Perhaps what you could do is find a way to program a macro to help you. Something like
Record = starts recording and sets an “in point”
Pause = stop record
Continue = starts recording, sets no “in point”
Stop =
stop record
sets “out point”
creates a range
bounces the events over that range
At least then you’d have continuous files of each take. I suppose you’d then have to figure out a way to program the naming of the files though.
Generally I feel your “pain”, but for me there’s more to the “problem” than just how the software runs. Producers have wildly different opinions about what constitutes a “take” and what doesn’t. I often find the labeling a bit confusing for that reason. What has worked best for me is when the Producer takes notes according to timecode location instead, and then gives me the notes and I quickly put together a take list based on those notes. But people have different opinions about it of course…
Thanks for your suggestion Lydiot. A lot of times I don’t have time to bounce, as I have to get the stuff up on FTP or thumb drive right away. However, I’m a good note taker and usually include a PDF scan of my session notes. I also call out takes when possible. But you’re right about different producers’ workflow. It’s usually the inexperienced ones that don’t have a good system.
Coming from the old reel-to-reel days, I find the file/take system liberating. I can edit an audio book in a tenth of the time it took me on reel, just because of the file numbering system. I also have to give kudos to Steinberg for their editing tools and layout. Not to knock ProTools, but Nuendo buries it in speed editing. I use the ShuttlePro 2 and my mouse to zip through narration edits. The “pause” feature is about the only missing feature I need.
Just to be clear, I didn’t mean a realtime audio mixdown/export, I meant consolidating (PT) / bouncing (Cubendo). That shouldn’t take long at all. I don’t think you’d lose much time at all.
Either way, I hope you find a good way to make your workflow faster.